Welcome to another edition of Ben’s Building Blocks! In this article, I will outline the players I’m looking to build my main lineup around for today’s slate. If you want access to my core plays for every main slate, as well as one of the best discord communities in the industry, click here.
Pitcher
Pitcher is an absolute mess tonight, with nobody looking good below the $8,000 range. Luckily, my favorite stack comes in extremely cheap, so I should be able to spend up for multiple pitchers on DraftKings. The top two for me are clearly Aaron Nola and Walker Buehler. Nola has been in top-form this season and gets a Braves lineup still missing Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies. Buehler has yet to post a big game, but nothing with his velocity is alarming me and this Rockies lineup struggles on the road yearly. Overall, I will be looking to jam them in together in my optimal build on DraftKings. As for FanDuel, Buehler is over $2,000 cheaper than Nola making him the “number one” though both are in consideration for me.
Building Blocks
Nelson Cruz- Cruz has been a staple of the building blocks section this season, and that won’t change tonight against Danny Duffy. We know that Cruz is one of the best hitters in the league against left-handed pitching, and has been for some time. I’m not a BvP guy at all, but is it really shocking that he has five career homers off of Duffy? Not only that, but he has an average exit velocity of 103 mph against him. This is over 20 at-bats of data, and on average if a ball gets put in play it’s leaving at 103 … truly insane. He’s my top spend-up in all formats.
Corey Seager- Another guy that has been featured here for week, Seager lines up with another righty in Jon Gray. Gray has long had potential for the Rockies, but has really fallen off in 2020. The strike out numbers are way down, and most concerning of all, his velocity has dipped by nearly 2 mph. Even if we factor in the last few seasons, he gives up over a .340 wOBA and 40% hard-contact to lefties. Seager continues to barrel everything he sees, ranking second-overall in the MLB in barrels per plate appearance. The Dodgers are arguably the top stack tonight, and Seager is my favorite piece.
Cheap Giants- The Giants are my favorite stack again tonight, against Robbie Ray. They were no secret last night against Suarez, but I actually think there’s a good chance of them coming in lower-owned tonight even after delivering a monster game on Thursday night. Ray has been as bad as we’ve ever seen him in 2020. He’s always been wild, but even last season he was able to survive with over 30% strikeouts. This season, that number has plummeted to 24%. He’s allowing massive hard-hits and fly-balls to both sides of the plate, and San Francisco hasn’t been the pitchers haven we have come to know. It seems like some of the park changes they made are actually affecting the exposure to wind, making it hitter-friendly. Regardless, the Giants have some really good hitters against left-handed pitching that are all at cheap price points. I will be stacking the Giants on my main team again, starting with Austin Slater. Wilmer Flores, Evan Longoria and Mike Yastrzemski.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
